Sunday, November 7, 2010

11/7/2010 Bowling for Muscular Dystrophy with Branch 79 Union

Whew Mr. Blog,
that was some tournament!
I am a beat dog from bowling and helping Marta
move stuff for six hours yesterday.
Ugh.
At least JoAnn asked Jodie if I could be on her team.
Thank God!
She and I are possibly the worst bowlers in the history of
Kenmore Fifty Lanes.
She started working at the Bothell Post Office in 1987 right
after I quit.
She is really good friends with JoAnn and carries mail with her up in
Mill Creek.
I got to see some of my old pals that I carried mail with in Bothell
from 1980 to 1987. Mary Constanza and Fernando and of course
Brooks and JoAnn.
I told Jodi I was very worried about JoAnn's run for Branch 79
Letter Carrier Union presidency over Rick Horner
and she said not to worry
that JoAnn the election in the bag.
That's what we thought last time and she lost by four votes
and had to go back to carrying mail after running the union for fourteen
years. She was so good at that job and when she gets a paper cut
she bleeds union blood.
I volunteered to call the 500 retirees but it is slow going
without the phone numbers. I have to go on the internet and
look up each name individually to get the numbers from
the reverse directory from the address.
So there weren't as many teams bowling this year and that made me sad.
Muscular Dystrophy is a terrible illness and usually people are
born with it and they don't ever get to walk.
The young gal the union sponsors was there in her wheelchair.
She is only about twenty and is in a wheelchair.
I hate that.
It is so unfair.
I just can't understand people having wasteful things like...
I don't know what.
But wasteful things of some sort
when there are awful things like muscular dystrophy and
cerebral palsy and ALS.
I'm not sure what ALS is but my pal Jenny Dwyer talks about it
and Jennifer Donahue works to cure pancreatic cancer.
That is terrible too.
Oh, sorry. I get sidetracked when I think about suffering
and don't know what to do.
I didn't even have money to pay my entry fee
but Jodi covered me. I told her I could
write her a post-dated check for my paycheck but she
didn't want me to.
Well, I am more inspired to get a job now than ever so
I can pay for Jodi's entry fee next year!
She is such a little pussycat.
The kind of person that if you got shipwrecked with
would say something like, "Wow, look at all the coconuts,
this will be so fun!"
I'm not even kidding Mr. Blog.
Jodi Olsen in one nice cookie.
And that little Mary Constanza!
She is such a firecracker.
She was having such a tough time raising those two kids
alone when I met her. Little Tony and Julie.
But what a marvelous job she did!
I think a lot about all the mail carriers.
They are out there year round in that brutal weather
with those awful supervisors needling them.
They are my heroes.
Every last one of them.
I couldn't do it.
The managers were so mean that I nearly had a
nervous breakdown working there.
Now the sisters that were on our team
were a hoot and a half.!
Donna D'Ambrosia was a shop steward with Terry
for awhile and then transferred to Mill Creek
and she and her sister Susie were so cute I couldn't
stand it.
How I longed to have a fun sister that
wanted to do things with me.
But I just pretended they were my sisters!
Jodi and I had really good games too!
I bowled 68 these first two and then 106!
I was so thrilled.
Plus, JoAnn's little sister Val was there.
She is probably one of the best people God made.
Val Pyle is just one of those people that after you
talk to them, you wish you could be half as quality of a person yourself.
She is a fancy-pants bowler too when she does this fancy foot
up in the air thing.
Mary has a wild fancy style too!
Very exciting to watch!
Oh, and Carlos' dad Gene came too!
He is really really good.
He has played on leagues for years and years.
Coby Jones showed up and I had met him last year
bowling. He is so funny and cheerful.
It got really fun as time progressed when people started shoving
cash in the neck collars every time anyone got a strike or a spare.
Mary did a really cute booty shake dance and had about
twenty dollars hanging off her back jeans' pockets!
We laughed and laughed and cheer each other on until we were hoarse
AND made another $50.00 for muscular dystrophy.
So that was fun.
I had dreaded it so much because I am a terrible bowler.
But you know what Mr. Blog?
I had one of the best times of my life.

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